driving on empty - fines and fees justice center

Driving on
SUSPENSION PRACTICES
FLORIDA’S COUNTERPRODUCTIVE
SUSPENSION PRACTICES
Driving on Empty .......................................................................................................................................................................................6
Driver’s License Suspensions Undermine Economic Productivity and Decrease Public Safety. .....6
Rather than Encouraging Payment, Suspensions Make Payment Less Likely .................................... 7
Driver’s License Suspensions for Nonpayment Divert Significant Public Safety Resources .....8
Driver’s License Suspensions Disproportionately Harm People of Color ...........................................10
Driver’s License Suspensions in Florida ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Context: Florida Fines and Fees............................................................................................................................................. 11
Florida’s Court Fees are Extensive and Have Expanded in the Last Two Decades ........................ 11
Funding for Florida’s Courts is Increasingly Dependent on Fines and Fees ....................................... 11
Speeding Tickets and Other Traffic Citations Heavily Used in Florida ................................................. 12
Driver’s License Suspensions in Florida: Law and Practice ................................................................................ 13
Reinstatement Process is Costly and Varies Widely by County ................................................................ 14
Driver’s License Suspension Practices Vary Widely in Different Counties ......................................... 14
Suspensions in Practice: Most Driver’s License Suspensions are Issued for Nonpayment, Not Dangerous Driving ................................................................................................................................ 15
Suspensions Statewide are Driven by Poverty .................................................................................................... 15
Suspension Rate is Five Percent Statewide but Varies Widely by County .........................................16
Length of Suspensions ..................................................................................................................................................... 17
Harsh Consequences for Driving on a Suspended License ........................................................................18
Florida’s Current Driver’s License Reinstatement Programs are Ineffective and Expensive ...19
Conclusion: Florida Must End Debt-Based License Suspension .............................................................19
Recommendation #1: Statewide Reform is Needed to Eliminate Driver’s License Suspension for Nonpayment of Court Debt While Automatically Reinstating Previously Debt-Based Suspended Licenses .....................................................................................................20
Recommendation #2: Restructure Funding so that County Clerk Court Operations are Not Dependent on Fines and Fees ...................................................................................................................20
Case Study Analysis .............................................................................................................................................................................. 21
Case Study Counties Vary Widely by Population and Demographics ............................................................................................................................................................... 21
High Total Number of Individual Suspensions ..................................................................................................... 21
Reinstatement Rates Highly Variant, but Low on Average .......................................................................... 22
People of Color and Low Income People are Most Affected by Suspensions ............................... 23
Conclusions: Case Study Counties ........................................................................................................................... 25
Endnotes .....................................................................................................................................................................................................26
https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/
This report is based on research and analysis conducted by Carson Whitelemons as part of the program of professional education at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley.
FINES & FEES JUSTICE CENTER 3
Shireen, a mother of six, first learned that her license was suspended when she was pulled over months after the suspension went into effect. She shares one car with the
rest of her family, and another family member received a ticket for running a red light. The notice regarding the ticket was missing Shireen’s apartment number and was never delivered. She has taken a second job solely to pay off the hundreds of dollars in fines and fees that have accumulated that she owes the court. Shireen knows there’s a better way: “I’m certain that if you give people proper information, if you told people, if you can’t afford to pay now, here are your options...people would respond and pay what they
could...Too many people live paycheck to paycheck. When you have to decide between paying for groceries and paying a ticket...I’m going to buy groceries for my family.”
SUSPENDED
Executive Summary Today, almost 2 million Floridians have a suspended license, not
because they are dangerous drivers, but because they are poor. That’s because Florida punishes people by suspending their driver’s license when they cannot afford to pay the steep fines and fees Florida law mandates for traffic tickets, toll violations and criminal convictions. Without a driver’s license, people can no longer be self-sufficient – they can’t reliably get to work, take their children to school, keep a medical appointment, or attend church. Losing a driver’s license can trigger years of financial hardship and a cycle of poverty and punishment few can escape.
In 2017, 1.1 million suspension notices were sent to Florida drivers because of overdue court debt. That’s one out of every fifteen drivers -- in just one year. Between 2015-2017, more than 3.5 million suspension notices were issued for unpaid court debt.
Florida routinely suspends driver’s licenses when payments for traffic, toll violations and criminal fines and fees are late, with no assessment of a person’s ability to pay. Few courts offer reasonable payment plans – despite state law that requires it. And after 90 days, court debt is sent to private collections agencies that can add up to 40% of the total amount due.
Driver’s license suspensions are counterproductive and ineffective. The goal of Florida’s suspension policies is to force people to pay their fines and fees, but it doesn’t work. Driver license suspensions often last years. In the counties we analyzed, on average, 77.12% of suspensions issued from 2016- 2018 remain in effect today.1
License suspensions are a financial issue for most Floridians, not an indication that people are unwilling to pay their debts. Indeed, evidence demonstrates that when people are given options to pay that are within their means, they pay. In 2014 Palm Beach County implemented a program that allows
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for flexible payment plans. As a result, they have seen the number of payments increase by 11%; their collection rate increase from under 60% to 80%; and their referrals to collections agencies decreased by 36%.2
In Florida, a driver’s license is a necessity. Almost 90% of Floridians drive to work, and large parts of the state lack reliable public transportation. When people lose their license, they often lose their job; if they find a new job, it’s often at reduced pay or for fewer hours. Once their license is suspended, people are often forced to choose between driving illegally in order to provide for themselves and their families or complying with the law and losing the ability to pay the court debt that triggered their suspensions in the first place.
The legal consequences of driving on a suspended license are severe and escalate over time. People become trapped in the justice system. They may even end up in jail or prison – all because of Florida’s futile license-for-payment scheme.
Florida’s suspension practices impact us all. Instead of targeting dangerous drivers or addressing serious crime, Florida spends its public safety resources stopping, prosecuting, and incarcerating drivers simply because they are poor. Business suffers when workers can’t reliably get to their jobs or are forced to quit because they can’t do their job without a license. Communities that most need financial investment are instead drained of economic vitality. Our research demonstrates that poor people and people of color are more likely to be affected by Florida’s suspension policies.
These disproportionate effects matter because the harms of driver’s license suspensions may exacerbate existing inequalities. For every person who has a suspended license or goes to jail for driving on a suspended license, there is a child, parent, or spouse who is also impacted.
THE FINDINGS IN THIS REPORT ARE SIGNIFICANT AND TROUBLING: • Driver’s License Suspensions for Nonpayment Affect Over a Million People Each Year. Total
suspension notices for failure to pay in 2017 represented 7.33% of the driving population in the state.
• Currently Almost 2 Million Floridians Cannot Legally Drive Because of Unpaid Fines and Fees. • It Takes Years for Most People to Regain Their License Once Suspended - 75% of driver’s
licenses suspended in 2016 remained suspended two years later. Plainly, suspensions are not an effective tool for coercing payment of fines and fees.
• Suspension Rates are Highest in Areas with Larger Proportions of People of Color and Low- Income People. Black people have suspended driver’s licenses on average 1.5 times the rate they are represented in the general population.
• 72% of Driver’s License Suspensions in Florida are for Unpaid Fines and Fees Not for Unsafe Driving.
• In 2017, law enforcement issued over 232,000 citations for driving while license suspended – over 5 times as many citations as were issued for Driving Under the Influence (DUI). Law enforcement, prosecutors and courts are diverting resources from serious crime and spending millions of dollars to “crack down” on people whose only crime is poverty.
It should come as no surprise that support for license-for-payment laws is dwindling. Lawmakers across the country are questioning the logic of license-for-payment policies. In the past two years, Virginia, Mississippi, Idaho, Montana, California, and the District of Columbia have all stopped suspending licenses for nonpayment. Legislation just passed in Texas will result in roughly 650,000 drivers’ licenses being reinstated, an additional 500,000 people will become eligible for license reinstatement, and Texas will relieve $2.5 billion in debt. Support for reform is nonpartisan and ranges
across the political spectrum from Koch Industries and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Florida legislators must take action and pass legislation that eliminates suspensions for nonpayment of fines and fees. Ending the state’s license-for-payment practices will prevent further harm to marginalized communities, improve the state’s economy, and better allocate public safety resources, ultimately making Florida a safer and more economically vibrant state.
The State of Suspensions in the United States. www.freetodrive.org/maps
n STATES THAT DON’T SUSPEND
n STATES THAT ARE ADAPTING
n STATES THAT STILL SUSPEND
NOT SHOWN ON MAP:
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Driving on Empty DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSIONS UNDERMINE ECONOMIC PRODUCTIVITY AND DECREASE PUBLIC SAFETY. Driver’s license suspensions exact a high personal and economic toll. Cars are by far the most common means of transportation to work and other essential destinations, and public transportation in Florida is limited. That’s why almost 90% of Floridians drive to work. Even when public transit is available, it may be prohibitively time consuming: averaged across all households in the United States, commuting to work takes over twice as long on public transit as commuting by private vehicle.3 In Miami, 84% of jobs would require three or more hours of daily commuting if using public transportation.4 Lack of public transit options can be even more severe for people living in low income or rural communities, who typically travel further to reach areas with employment opportunities.5
Lack of adequate public transportation isn’t the only issue. 30% of jobs nationwide require the use of a vehicle during work.6 For these workers, losing your driver’s license means losing your job. Job applications increasingly require a driver’s
license, and this requirement may even be more prevalent in the industries hailed as pathways to sustaining, high-wage work, such as construction and manufacturing.7
A New Jersey study found that 42% of people whose driver’s licenses were suspended lost their jobs as a result of the suspension. Of those who could find an alternate job, 88% had lower wages.8 A 2007 study found that a valid driver’s license is a more accurate predictor of employment than a GED diploma among Workforce Investment Act (WIA) recipients.9
Figure 1: How Floridians get to work Source: https://
censusreporter.org/profiles/04000US12-florida/#commute
n PUBLIC TRANSIT 1.70%
n OTHER 1.70%
n WALKED 1.40%
n BICYCLE 0.60%
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A New Jersey study found that 42% of people whose driver’s licenses were suspended lost their jobs as a result of the suspension. Of those who could find an alternate job, 88% had lower wages.
Employers are affected as well. When employees lose their licenses due to suspensions, employers bear the cost of replacing trained workers who can no longer do their job or get to work, and the larger economy loses productivity and labor. Employees forced to rely on unreliable public transportation or a friend or family member to drive them to work are often late or don’t make it to work at all.
In addition to employment, finding housing may be more difficult without a driver’s license. Many landlords require a copy of a driver’s license or driver’s license number and may favor those who can provide this information. Insurance premiums can also be higher for previously suspended drivers, no matter what the underlying reason for the suspension, as driving records do not always distinguish between suspensions due to unsafe driving behaviors or other reasons.11
These economic impacts affect the entire community. An Arizona study of a driver’s license reinstatement program in Phoenix found that after the 7000 program participants licenses were reinstated, they gained 1,904 job years of employment, $87 million in labor income, and the City of Phoenix saw a $149.6 million increase in GDP.12 People who can drive to work, earn more and spend more.
Harder to measure, but no less important, is the
personal, familial and social toll of being unable to drive in a society where there are few alternatives. Beyond driving to work, people use their cars to help sick relatives, get kids to school, attend doctor’s appointments, and even to drive to the very courts to which they owe payment. These harms are multigenerational: barriers to parental employment or other strains on financial security can have detrimental effects on children’s long- term outcomes.13
RATHER THAN ENCOURAGING PAYMENT, SUSPENSIONS MAKE PAYMENT LESS LIKELY For some Floridians, a traffic ticket that costs a few hundred dollars is a minor inconvenience. A person with the means to do so will pay the fines and fees and move on with their life. For others, a few hundred dollars is simply out of reach, and a 30-day payment deadline impossible to meet. 40% of Americans cannot cover an unexpected $400 expense.14 A minimum wage worker in Florida grosses $338 a week. 14% of Floridians live in poverty, including 20% of children.15 Poor and moderate-income people who cannot afford to immediately pay a traffic ticket see their driver’s licenses automatically suspended.
In addition to traffic fines and fees, most counties in Florida also automatically suspend driver’s
Forty percent of Americans cannot cover an unexpected $400 expense. A minimum wage worker in Florida grosses $338 a week. 14% percent of Floridians live in poverty, including 20% of children.
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licenses if criminal court fines, fees, and costs are overdue. The amount of this court debt can be truly staggering. People returning to their communities from incarceration - who already face a host of challenges - must pay off what can be thousands of dollars in fines, fees and costs before they can obtain their driver’s license. Often, they come out of custody with their license already suspended.
Once a person’s license is suspended, unemployment or diminished employment makes it harder to pay off the fines or fees that triggered suspension in the first place. Joshua Aiken of the Prison Policy Initiative notes that suspensions “create a self-fulfilling prophecy. By making employment opportunities harder to access, driver’s license suspensions produce economic instability. Altogether, a suspended driver’s license translates to less social mobility: people living in poor communities stay poor.”17
The lengthy duration of driver’s license
suspensions demonstrates that they are ineffective mechanisms for promoting payment on overdue fines or fees. If driver’s license suspensions successfully induced payment, we would expect that suspensions would be short in duration. But evidence suggests this is not the case. Our analysis of three case study counties in the state finds that on average, less than a quarter of licenses suspended from 2016-2018 were restored within those three years. Those findings are consistent with other studies. In a report issued in 2014, Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA) found that 44% of people whose licenses were suspended for unpaid fines and fees did not get them reinstated for two years, and 10% didn’t have their licenses after 5 years.18
DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSIONS FOR NONPAYMENT DIVERT SIGNIFICANT PUBLIC SAFETY RESOURCES Suspending driver’s licenses for unpaid fines and fees does not increase traffic or public safety. To the contrary, these license suspensions for unpaid fines and fees divert public safety resources from serious crime. Once the economic and personal consequences of driver’s license suspensions are considered, it is perhaps unsurprising that an estimated 75% of suspended drivers continue to drive post suspension.19 Government must then allocate resources towards arresting and prosecuting people who drive while their license is suspended. In 2017, there were over 232,000 citations for driving on a
In a report issued in 2014, Florida’s Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA) found that 44% of people whose licenses were suspended for unpaid fines and fees did not get them reinstated for two years, and 10% didn’t have their licenses after 5 years.
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suspended or revoked license resulting in 53,000 convictions.21 James Madison Institute and the Reason Foundation conservatively estimated that license suspensions for failure to pay cost the Florida courts over $40 million annually.22
According to the American Association of Motor Vehicles, “the costs of arresting, processing, administering, and enforcing social nonconformance related driver license suspensions create a significant strain on budgets and other resources and detract from highway and public safety priorities.”23 Police officers must take appropriate action for a suspension violation no matter the reason for suspension, and may need to later appear in court to adjudicate the ticket. In Union County, Ohio, it was estimated to take an average of nine hours to arrest and prosecute a person for driving with a suspended license.24
These costs are incurred without any gains in public safety. Drivers whose licenses have been suspended for unpaid debts are not dangerous drivers. To the contrary, driver’s license suspensions for nonpayment divert law enforcement, prosecutor, and court resources from serious crime to the “crime” of being poor. Moreover, there is no evidence that drivers with suspended licenses for nonpayment exhibit riskier driving behavior.25 In fact, hit and run incidents may have increased because of the
large number of active drivers with suspended licenses who may be unwilling to stay at the scene of an accident due to the penalties they potentially face.26 The Florida Highway Patrol reported that there were more than 98,000 hit and run incidents in 2017.27
Reforms to driver’s license suspension policies have resulted in significant cost savings., Shelby County Tennessee’s District Attorney, facing rising caseloads, permanently adopted a policy of declining to prosecute driving on a suspended license in cases where the license was suspended for nonpayment of fines and fees. Between September 1 and October 20, 2018, Shelby County dismissed 3,643 cases of driving on a suspended license, reducing the District Attorney’s Office caseload by 43%.28
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According to the American Association of Motor Vehicles, “the costs of arresting, processing, administering, and enforcing social nonconformance related driver license suspensions create a significant strain on budgets and other resources and detract from highway and public safety priorities.”
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DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSIONS DISPROPORTIONATELY HARM PEOPLE OF COLOR
Communities of color bear the brunt of driver’s license suspensions and their harms. Racial minorities are disproportionately likely to be involved with the criminal justice system, and therefore accumulate criminal justice debt for costs such as public defender fees, probation fees, and electronic monitoring fees.30 In addition, studies have shown people of color are more likely to be pulled over for traffic infractions,
which often lead to traffic fines that people are unable to pay, triggering driver’s license suspensions.31 This inequity in traffic stops also means that people of color who drive with a suspended license are more likely to be caught and face the often severe consequences.
Our analysis of suspension patterns in four Florida counties also reflect these disparities: black people have suspended driver’s licenses on average 1.5 times the rate they are represented in the general population (see Figure 13).
The practice of suspending a person’s driver’s license for nonpayment of court fines and costs is inequitable, it’s past time we end it. A driver’s license is critical to daily life, including a person’s ability to maintain a job.”
—Virginia Governor Ralph Northam32
Since 1996, Florida has created more than 20 new types of fees, and, at the same time, Florida eliminated most exemptions for those who cannot afford to pay.
Driver’s License Suspensions in Florida CONTEXT: FLORIDA FINES AND FEES The landscape of fines and fees that individuals face interacting with the justice system is complex and complicated. We discuss three main trends in Florida’s fines and fees apparatus, all of which are linked: the expansion of fines and fees usage in Florida, the increasing pressure put on Florida courts to fund operations through fines and fees, and the widespread usage of traffic citations and their racialized consequences.
FLORIDA’S COURT FEES ARE EXTENSIVE AND HAVE EXPANDED IN THE LAST TWO DECADES There are many types of financial obligations imposed in the criminal justice system. Fines are the financial penalty imposed for violating the law, and they were initially intended to be an alternative to prison. Restitution is money a court may order a person pay directly to the victim of a crime to compensate them for any harm they may have suffered as a result of the crime. Fees, costs, or surcharges are additional financial sanctions that fund the justice system and other government services. Fees are simply a tax imposed through the justice system. It is this last category – what this report refers to simply as “fees” - that has been increasingly employed in Florida over the last two decades.
Since 1996, Florida has created more than 20 new types of fees, and, at the same time, Florida eliminated most exemptions for those who cannot afford to pay.33 Examples include public defender application fees, prosecution fees, and probation fees.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, the Florida fee increases of the past three decades “have not been accompanied by any evident consideration of their hidden costs: the cumulative impacts on those required to pay, the ways in which the debt can lead to new offenses, and the costs to counties, clerks and courts of collection mechanisms that fail to exempt those unable to pay.”34 While state statute advises that fine and fee payments should not exceed 2% of a person’s annual income, this is rarely followed in practice—counties often require payments in fixed monthly amounts that do not consider ability to pay.35
FUNDING FOR FLORIDA’S COURTS IS INCREASINGLY DEPENDENT ON FINES AND FEES Policy changes in Florida over the last two decades have put heightened pressure on local county clerks to produce revenue. Florida voters passed “Revision 7” in 1998, a change to the constitution that required that clerks’ offices for county and circuit courts be funded by court fees, which include civil filing fees as well as fees associated with criminal or traffic convictions.36 Additional legislative changes have only increased the pressure faced by clerks to raise funds. Yearly, county clerks of court are now required to submit their budgets to state oversight. If the proposed budget is higher than projected fee revenue, clerks are required to raise fees to make up for the shortfall.37
Two other declining sources of revenue have exacerbated the funding deficits courts are experiencing. First, foreclosure filings, a significant source of funding, have declined as the housing market has stabilized. Second, the number of traffic citations issued, while still significant, has been declining over the
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Figure 2: Examples of Fees
last decade, reducing revenue.38 Both of these changes make the court’s funding model unsustainable. The Orange County Clerk’s 2018 annual report frankly discusses the funding shortfalls affecting its courts: “our community is steadily growing and yet for 10 years in a row, our local budget has been cut. The impact has been so great that our office has nearly 200 fewer employees since 2009 and our court approved budget has been cut 29% since then. The funding model is broken.”39
This structural dependence on fines and fees to support court functions, combined with increasingly strained budgets, may compromise judicial integrity. The American Bar Association, the National Center for State Courts, and other experts have expressed concern that the judiciary’s independent role may be harmed by the financial incentives this system creates.40 Florida’s court system and its reliance on fee revenue may help explain why fines and fees have risen without consideration of people’s ability to pay.
SPEEDING TICKETS AND OTHER TRAFFIC CITATIONS HEAVILY USED IN FLORIDA Municipalities using traffic fines to raise revenue have gained increased attention since the Department of Justices’ investigation in Ferguson, MO. The Civil Rights Division’s report devoted a chapter to the Ferguson Municipal Court and found that revenue generation shaped the city’s policing practices and that nonwhite and low-income citizens disproportionately received citations.41 Like Ferguson, Florida has also received recent attention both for the revenue generating aspects of its fines and fees structure and for its racially disproportionate impacts.42
Traffic citations are fairly common in Florida and generate a substantial amount of revenue for dwindling county clerk budgets. In 2018, speeding tickets made up the greatest portion of traffic citations issued across the state. A law passed in 2015 banned ticket quotas throughout the state
Public Defender Application Fee: $50.00
Cost for Public Defender: $50-$100
Cost of Prosecution: $100.00
Crimes Compensation Trust Fund: $50.00
Additional Court Costs: $225.00
Crime Prevention: $20.00 - $50.00
Domestic Violence Surcharge: $201.00
County Ordinance for Additional Court Costs: $65.00
County Ordinance for Revenue Replacement Surcharge: $85.00
Teen Court: $3.00
EXAMPLES OF FEES
late fees added missed payments/unable to pay
Andrew is unsure how much he owes in court debt, but knows it is more than he can afford to pay. He is barely making ends meet as it is, and the amount owed seems “so impossible”- even on a payment plan- that he can’t imagine ever being able to pay it off. Andrew is currently driving with a suspended license to get to work. He’s worried that if he is caught, he’ll accrue more fines and fees or worse. “It just doesn’t make sense,” he says. “How can I make money if I can’t drive?”
in the wake of media reports that one small north Florida town raised half of its annual revenues from speeding tickets.43 In 2017, two FLHSMV officials resigned after it was revealed that they had ordered patrol officers to write at least two tickets an hour while on duty.44 These recent scandals and resulting policy changes have contributed to a decline of issued citations. From 2012-2017, according to the FLHSMV, speeding ticket issuances decreased by 14%.45 While the revenue generated by traffic citations in Florida continues to be substantial, it appears to be on the decline, which has consequences for clerks across the state. In 2017, clerks collected roughly 355 million dollars in civil traffic fines and fees, compared to over 400 million dollars in 2012.46
DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSIONS IN FLORIDA: LAW AND PRACTICE
KEY FINDINGS:
• Florida suspends driver’s licenses for a variety of reasons unrelated to dangerous driving
• Once a license is suspended, it costs a minimum of $67 in addition to the outstanding fines and fees owed to have a license reinstated.
• While restricted driver’s licenses are available for some categories of suspensions, including DUIs, they are not an option for people who have suspended licenses due to nonpayment.
When a person does not pay required financial obligations within the time period provided by the court, state statute requires that the clerk mail a notice to the individual that the person has 30 days to pay the obligation to the court before a license suspension will be triggered. If the person does not pay within 30 days, including an additional $25 “delinquency fee” that must be paid, the clerk notifies the FLHSMV who mails an order of suspension to the individual effective 20 days after the notice is mailed.47 The mailing address used is from FLHSMV records, and if the person has moved or has changed locations, the notice may not reach them. Low income families are more likely to move frequently than
Ticket/toll/crim inal conviction
to 40%+ original amount owed
late fees added missed payments/unable to pay
is su
ed fi
ne s/
fe es
/c o
st s
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other groups, which may make it less likely they are receiving suspension notices from either the court or the FLHSMV.48
The FLHSMV is the state agency in Florida responsible for suspending driver’s licenses. Clerks of courts are responsible for collecting financial obligations imposed by the court for criminal and traffic offenses. Clerks contact the FLHSMV when these payments are delinquent.49 In traffic cases, clerks of courts are required to notify the FLHSMV when payments are overdue, but in the case of criminal cases, clerks have discretion to decide whether to contact the FLHSMV and initiate a suspension.
At least two counties we are aware of, Leon County and Hillsborough County, do not suspend licenses for delinquent misdemeanor and felony debt.50 This indicates that some counties recognize the counterproductive consequences for issuing a license suspension for failure to pay.
Suspensions for unpaid fines and fees are indefinite until obligations are paid. By contrast, a person who has committed a drug crime must have their driver’s license suspended for six months, at which time they are eligible for reinstatement.51 In the case of both failure to pay criminal fines and fees and traffic fines and fees, there is no minimum time period of suspension.
REINSTATEMENT PROCESS IS COSTLY AND VARIES WIDELY BY COUNTY The driver’s license reinstatement process is both confusing and costly for people who have received a suspension. At minimum, to obtain license reinstatement a person must either pay
off their outstanding court debt in full or petition the court to be placed on a payment plan. The reinstatement fee alone is $60, a portion of which is retained by tax collectors or clerks of court of the local county.52 Upon full payment of court costs (including an additional late fee) or being placed on a payment plan, the Clerk of Courts will provide a person with a suspended license an Affidavit to Reinstate Driver License Privilege to submit to the FLHSMV. The affidavit typically costs an additional $7.53
Additional financial penalties may continue to accrue even after a driver’s license is suspended. Once a payment is over 90 days late, the clerk may refer the case to a private collection agency.54 Private collection agencies are allowed to charge an additional 40% of the original amount owed.55 For fines and fees imposed in misdemeanor and felony cases, interest also accrues.56
DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSION PRACTICES VARY WIDELY IN DIFFERENT COUNTIES While state statute provides guidance on the timing and requirements of suspensions, practices vary widely county by county. The text of the notices people receive, hours and locations people can pay outstanding fees, information available online, and even whether payment plans are available can all vary based on county. One investigation discovered substantial variation in the process of driver’s license suspensions.57 In regard to the amount of time fees can be delinquent before this is reported to the state of Florida, for example, Martin County submits a suspension notice to the FLHSMV within five days of failure to pay fees, whereas
Alyssa went to renew her car’s tags in December 2018, and learned that her driver’s license had been suspended for six months. Alyssa’s daughter was caught by a redlight camera months earlier, but the payment and eventual suspension notice had been sent to a P.O. box that Alyssa no longer has access to.
in Baker County, suspensions are triggered after 30-45 days of nonpayment.58 In some counties, suspensions are not automatic but instead issued at a judge’s discretion.59 In other counties, the clerk’s office has discretion to delay suspensions beyond the advised time period. There is also great variation in terms of payment plans offered or alternative forms of payment. In Baker County, for example, a person must pay at least 10% of what they owe to be eligible for a payment plan – a requirement which is not required by statute.60
SUSPENSIONS IN PRACTICE: Most Driver’s License Suspensions Are Issued For Nonpayment, Not Dangerous Driving
KEY FINDINGS: • Over 1.6 million suspension notices were
issued in Florida in 2017. • 1.1 million of these suspension notices—or
72% —were for failure to pay traffic, tolls, misdemeanor, and felony fines and fees.
• In Florida today, nearly 2 million people cannot legally drive because of unpaid fines and fees.
• There is substantial variation between counties in the number of suspensions issued, but on average, total suspensions for failure to pay in 2017 represented 4.33% of the driving population in the state.
• In 2017, there were over 232,000 citations and 53,000 convictions for driving with a suspended or revoked license.
SUSPENSIONS STATEWIDE ARE DRIVEN BY POVERTY The total number of suspension notices issued statewide is staggering: 1.6 million in 2017. According to information provided by the FLHSMV, the number of suspension notices issued statewide has declined slightly over the last few years, from a high point of 1,695,630 suspension notices in 2015 to 1,626,151 suspension notices in 2017. Multiple driver’s license suspensions can be initiated per person, but FLHSMV data also documents that, as of April
2019, 1,999,127 individuals could not legally drive in Florida because of a suspended license. 61
Focusing on 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, reveals several important trends about statewide patterns of driver’s license suspensions. We can use the FLHSMV provided data to determine not only how many suspension notices were issued, but how many of these notices actually resulted in a suspension statewide. Once a suspension notice is sent, individuals have 20 days to pay the full amount they owe. If they do not do so, the suspension is triggered. In 2017, 976,347 suspensions, or 71% of the total suspension notices issued, actually went into effect (these are termed “effective suspensions” in Figure 5). 688,101 “effective” suspensions were actually issued due to failure to pay, and similar to the patterns observed when examining all suspensions in the state
Suspensions due to failure to pay represent the vast majority of total suspensions issued. 72%
As of April, 2019, 1,999,127 individuals could not legally drive in Florida because of a suspended license.
Figure 4: Different suspensions Source: FL DHSMV
n CHILD SUPPORT 10.5%
NOT TRAFFIC SAFETY RELATED
3.8%
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of the suspension notices issued in 2017, or 1,164,340 suspensions, were due to nonpayment of either traffic or criminal fines and fees. This is compared to only 16,453 suspensions issued for DUI. Within the failure to pay category, failure to pay traffic fines represents the largest share of driver’s license suspensions (Figure 6).
SUSPENSION RATE IS FIVE PERCENT STATEWIDE BUT VARIES WIDELY BY COUNTY Comparing the number of suspensions for nonpayment to the state’s driving population helps demonstrate how widespread suspensions are across the state. In 2017, the total number
of suspension notices issued for failure to pay represents 7% of the driving population. The total number of effective suspensions or those in which people did not pay off delinquent fees before the suspension was initiated, represents 4% of the driving population.
There is substantial variation between counties regarding driver’s license suspension rates. The table on the next page shows the number of total and effective suspensions for the five counties with highest suspension rates per driving population. Orange County, for example, has the highest rate of suspensions, with failure to pay suspensions issued per year totaling over 160,000 and representing 14.99% of the driving population. Walton County, in contrast, suspended under 700 drivers for failure to pay in 2017, representing less than 2% of the county’s driving population.62 Appendix A provides a county by county breakdown.
Figure 6: Proportion of Suspensions Due To Failure to Pay Data Provided by FLHSMV (October 2018).
Failed to pay traffic fines:
991,490 Suspensions
Failed to pay criminal fees: 172,850 Suspensions
72% of all driving suspensions in 2017 were due to failure to pay
James, a Florida resident, was “always looking over his shoulder” in the years he had his driver’s license suspended. Years ago, he received a traffic ticket that he was unable to pay fully, despite sacrificing money that would normally have gone to groceries or rent. James continued driving on a suspended license to get to work, and eventually was caught and arrested for driving on a suspended license. In addition to a criminal conviction, he was assessed more fines and fees. He is still financially unable to pay the amount required to reinstate his license.
Figure XX: Suspension Notices Vs. Effective Suspensions, 2017
Total Suspensions
Effective Suspensions
Figure 5: Suspension Notices vs. Effective Suspensions, 2017 Data Provided by FLHSMV (October
2018).
Orange County
12.31%
LENGTH OF SUSPENSIONS Understanding how long suspensions last in Florida is crucial to estimating their impact. There are multiple indicators that suspensions last a long time once initiated.
First, we can estimate from statewide FLHSMV data the number of suspensions for nonpayment that remain in effect at the end of the calendar year in which they were issued. 53% of the suspensions initiated in 2017, remained in effect
at the end of 2017. Second, slightly older data from the Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability (OPPAGA) indicates suspensions are lasting well over a year. According to data from FY 2012-2013, 44% of suspensions for unpaid court obligations last for two years or longer.63 Finally, an analysis of select Florida counties finds that 77.12% of licenses within those counties suspended for failure to pay are not reinstated within three years (see Case Study Analysis on page 21).
Figure 7: Suspension Rates Per Driving Population Data Provided by FLHSMV (October 2018).
Driver’s License Suspensions in Select Counties, 2017
County Licensed Drivers
DL Suspension for Failure to Pay
Proportion of Suspensions for Failure to Pay/Total Driving Population
Orange 997,848 160,933 149,589 14.99%
Glades 6517 1210 944 14.49%
Miami-Dade 2,030,917 309,484 250,063 12.31%
Lee 546,993 75,237 64,931 11.87%
Duval 705,037 84,843 65,772 9.33%
Figure 8: Driver’s License Suspensions in Select Counties, 2017 Analysis of data provided by the FLHSMV
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These lengthy suspensions increase the negative effects of driver’s license suspension on employment, reveal how ineffective license suspensions are as a debt-collection practice, and indicate that year after year, the number of people with suspended licenses in the state is accumulating.
HARSH CONSEQUENCES FOR DRIVING ON A SUSPENDED LICENSE Citations for driving with a suspended or revoked license are frequent in Florida, and the consequences for being caught can be severe. In 2017, Florida issued over 232,000 citations for driving on a suspended or revoked license- equaling over 600 new offenses each day across Florida and nearly 100 a day in Miami-Dade alone (98/day).64 Given that the 72% of suspended licenses are due to failure to pay, it is likely that the majority of citations are in fact violations related to suspensions for nonpayment of traffic fines or criminal justice fees. A full county by county breakdown of driver’s license suspension related citations is available in Appendix A.65
The consequences for driving on a suspended license in Florida are serious. A first offense for knowingly driving on a suspended license can result in a misdemeanor charge, a fine of up to $500 dollars, and 60 days in jail. A second offense can result in a fine of up to $1000 dollars.66 A third offense is punishable by a misdemeanor
conviction, a $5,000 fine, and requires that a person goes to jail for minimum of ten days, though prior to a law change in 2019 a third offense was classified as a felony. A third offense also triggers a mandatory five-year driver’s license suspension under the habitual offender law, even if you pay back all that you owe.67
Given the volume of citations, a significant amount of public safety resources are spent by the state each year to cite, arrest, and prosecute drivers who have a suspended license. Regardless of outcome, the state still bears the law enforcement and legal costs of citation and prosecution in thousands of cases.
Matthew is a 32 year old whose license has been suspended for seven years due to unpaid criminal court debt. He owes $6,653.87 in fines and fees among three different counties. He is currently a participant in the Hernando County Drug Court. His success in drug court is dependent on his ability to attend all of the required weekly appointments, including random drug screens, and without a valid driver’s license it is extremely challenging for him to do so. If he does not successfully complete the drug court program he will face a potential prison sentence along with the possibility of being assessed additional fines and fees and additional suspensions placed on his license if he is unable to pay those fines and fees.
Figure XX Total Citations By Year: Driving with a Suspended or Revoked License
Figure 9: Total Citations By Year: Driving with a Suspended License “Uniform Traffic Citation Report,” Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (2017), https://services.flhsmv.gov/ SpecialtyPlates/UniformTrafficCitationReport.
FLORIDA’S CURRENT DRIVER’S LICENSE REINSTATEMENT PROGRAMS ARE INEFFECTIVE AND EXPENSIVE
Counties have implemented several programs in a futile attempt to mitigate some of the harms of license suspension policies in Florida. Florida’s so- called First Step Act (HB 7125), enacted in 2019, mandated that every county hold a “driver’s license reinstatement clinic” at least one day a year. The full reinstatement fee must be collected, but other fees can be waived at the clerk’s discretion.68 These reinstatement days are unlikely to adequately serve nearly the number of people that need their driver’s license back. In 2015, 60 out of the 67 counties participated in a similar license reinstatement program, “Operation Green Light.” There were less than 2,000 license reinstatements that resulted from the program, compared to over a million suspensions issued statewide in 2015.69
More recent programs have been equally unsuccessful. In June 2019, for example, the Eighth Judicial Circuit held a driver’s license restoration clinic in Alachua County. A full day clinic resulted in just 6 people getting their licenses reinstated.70 According to the FLHSMV, 6509 Alachua County residents have their driver’s licenses suspended. The County could not provide the cost of the clinic to taxpayers, but a hearing officer, an assistant public defender, at least one representative of the clerk’s office, FLHSMV, and “representatives from all of the relevant agencies” attended.71 At a minimum, the cost was a day’s salary of a public employee for every license suspended.
Miami-Dade, a county with one of the highest suspension rates in Florida, has implemented Drive Legal - a diversion program for people who were cited for driving on a suspended license that avoids prosecution or jail time. Instead, drivers with suspended licenses have their outstanding debt removed from collection agencies and pay off their outstanding fees through a combination of community service and a payment plan
tailored to their financial circumstances. The program assists about 12,000 people per year. Though 12,000 sounds impressive, there are over 250,000 suspension notices issued in Miami- Dade County each year. If 12,000 people are served by the program, this represents only 5% of the suspensions issued in one year alone. More significant reform would be needed to reach a larger portion of the people who need help getting their licenses restored. Drive Legal is also limited to people who have the means to pay a fee to participate: the program costs $175 per participant to enroll. In addition, there is a $25 fee to enroll in the payment plan which is added to the total amount due, and a 20% deposit of the money owed is required to begin a payment plan.72 The program is still out of reach for Floridians struggling to pay fees because of limited financial means, which may indicate that low income people and people of color are shut out of participation.
CONCLUSION: FLORIDA MUST END DEBT-BASED LICENSE SUSPENSION Florida’s current driver’s license suspension methods are counterproductive, costly, and further marginalize vulnerable communities. The personal stories included in this report show that each of the 1.1 million suspensions issued yearly in the state are causing significant personal and economic harms. And all Floridians pay the cost of citing, arresting, and even imprisoning those who drive with a suspended license, as well as the loss of productivity and economic vitality in the Florida economy.
Florida must reform its driver’s license suspension policies to prevent the state from punishing poor people simply for being poor. Most importantly, the state must eliminate automatic driver’s license suspensions for nonpayment. But even if driver license suspension policy was completely reformed in Florida, the underlying structure of justice taxes for government services would remain. That, too, needs to change.
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RECOMMENDATION #1 Statewide reform is needed to eliminate driver’s license suspension for nonpayment of court debt while automatically reinstating previously debt-based suspended licenses It is important that reforms not only eliminate suspensions for nonpayment moving forward but also provide automatic license reinstatement for the hundreds of thousands of Floridians who currently have their licenses suspended due to nonpayment. Eliminating automatic suspensions for nonpayment will both prevent further harm to marginalized communities, free up public safety resources, and create a more reliable workforce, ultimately making Florida a safer and more economically vibrant state.
The bipartisan support for driver’s license suspension reform across the country demonstrates that these changes are politically feasible in a variety of legislative contexts.
Proponents of public safety and economic growth and advocates for racial justice can find common ground in driver’s license suspension reform.
RECOMMENDATION #2 Restructure funding so that county clerk court operations are not dependent on fines and fees Florida’s current system for clerk funding, in which fines and fees are the principal revenue source for funding court operations, is unsustainable and may compromise judicial integrity.
While many states use fine and fee revenue to partially fund court operations, Florida has the dubious distinction of being one of the states most dependent on this revenue to support its court clerk operations. Clerks must devote an enormous amount of resources to attempting to collect fines and fees from people involved in the criminal justice system, many of whom cannot afford to pay. Florida lawmakers should pass legislation that funds the clerk of courts and court operations with general revenue and stop relying on criminal convictions and traffic citations to fund governmental functions.
Jason has been without a driver’s license since 2008. He was on a payment plan making payments on misdemeanor court fees he owed in Citrus County, Florida when an auto-draft of his checking account came early and Jason defaulted on his payment. The clerk demanded immediate full payment of $1476.00, which Jason could not pay, and his driver’s license was suspended.
At the time his license was suspended, Jason was a proud union ironworker making up to $28 an hour. Without a driver’s license, he cannot travel to jobs as an ironworker. He is able to work temp jobs here and there but the closest city is over 70 miles from where he lives, so employment options are limited without a license. He is now behind on his child support payments for his 13-year-old daughter and he and his wife are now living with family. Jason feels he will be paying for the crime of being poor for the rest of his life.
Case Study Analysis LICENSE SUSPENSION IN FOUR COUNTIES
We obtained driver’s license suspension information for 2016-2018 directly from four counties across the state via public records requests: Duval, Glades, Hillsborough, and Seminole Counties.73
We explored three main categories of information: total suspensions issued by county per individual, driver’s license reinstatement rates and time periods, and demographic characteristics of each county where available, focusing on race and income.
OUR KEY FINDINGS: • 295,000 individual’s licenses were
suspended from 2016-2018 in the four counties.
• Once a license is suspended, it stays suspended; 77.12% of suspensions issued in 2016 remained in effect at the end of 2018.
• Suspensions are disproportionately harming people of color and low-income people.
CASE STUDY COUNTIES VARY WIDELY BY POPULATION AND DEMOGRAPHICS The counties in this analysis were selected based on two main criteria: counties with large populations, and counties with high suspension rates relative to the general population. We used these criteria because we were most interested in the realities of driver’s license suspension practices in areas where suspensions are having a large impact, either in sheer number of people affected or in terms of a large proportion of the population being affected.
The underlying characteristics of the counties selected vary widely in terms of population, demographic make-up, and economic prosperity. As the table below demonstrates, the case
study counties differ drastically in terms of total population, with the smallest county having about 6,000 drivers and the largest county over 2000 times that amount, with 1.5 million drivers. Two of the counties —Duval, and Seminole, have a higher proportion of either black or latinx people than in the general state population. Duval, Glades, and Seminole counties all have a higher proportion of people living below the poverty rate. These variations will be discussed throughout the findings section, particularly the ways in which these underlying characteristics may be influencing suspension rates and outcomes.
HIGH TOTAL NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL SUSPENSIONS Data from the case study counties demonstrate that a large number of individuals are being impacted by driver’s license suspensions for nonpayment. From 2016-2018, 298,000 people were issued driver’s license suspensions in the four counties from which we have data.74 If this proportion of individuals being suspended was the same across the entire state, that would mean that over 2.2 million individuals had been suspended for failure to pay in the past three years.75
The proportion of the driving population in each county affected by suspensions varies widely. In Glades County, for example, the county with the highest proportion of residents below the poverty line, there were 3,257 suspension cases from 2016-2018, which represents over half of the driving population of the county. In Seminole County, by contrast, while there were a large number of suspension cases, most of these were issued to the same small proportion of individuals— 5% of the driving population was affected over a three- year period.
In Seminole County, by contrast, while there were a large number of suspension cases, most of these were issued to the same small proportion of individuals— five percent of the driving population was affected over a three- year period.
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REINSTATEMENT RATES HIGHLY VARIANT, BUT LOW ON AVERAGE Just as important as whether a suspension is issued in the first place is when the person affected is able to regain their license, if ever. If suspensions do not typically result in reinstatements, or if there is a long gap between suspension and reinstatement, suspensions
are a questionable enforcement mechanism for payment because people are still not making the payments they owe. The time period of suspension is also important to assess the potential harms of Florida’s current policy, as prolonged suspensions likely have greater negative consequences on individuals and their families.
Three of the case study counties: Glades, Hillsborough, and Seminole, provided data on whether an individual’s license was ever reinstated after being suspended. There is extreme variation by county in the proportion of licenses that are ever restored, ranging from less than 1% of licenses in Seminole County to 40.4% in Hillsborough County.76
On average, 77.12% of driver’s license suspensions issued in 2016 remained in effect at the end of 2018.
This high variation is likely due to two main factors. First, underlying county characteristics that influence people’s ability to pay overdue fines, such as the number of individuals in
Characteristics of Case Study Counties
Duval Glades Hillsborough Seminole State
County Population 937,934 13,754 1,408,566 462,659 —
Driving Population 689,954 6,346 1,001,907 354,353 16,008,166
Black population % 30.50% 13.80% 12.70% 17.80% 16.90%
Latinx Population % 9.70% 20.70% 21.40% 28.60% 25.60%
White Population % (Non-Latinx) 53.20% 60.8% 60.6% 49.10% 54.10%
% Below poverty rate 15.10% 18.90% 11.20% 15.50% 14% Sources: Census American Community Survey, 2017; “Licensed Drivers By County, 2016,” Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
Figure XX: 298,000 Individuals Had Their Licenses Suspended From 2016-2018
Figure XX: Percent of Total Licenses Reinstated By County
Figure 10: Characteristics of Case Study Counties.
Figure 11: Between 2016-2018, 298,000 Individuals Had Their Licenses Suspended
poverty, may make certain areas more vulnerable to prolonged suspensions. Policies around driver’s license suspensions in each individual county likely also play a large role.77 Counties that allow more payment plan options or build discretion into the process where possible likely make it more feasible for people to restore their driver’s licenses. Even assuming that more counties resemble Hillsborough County, the county with the highest reinstatement rate, that would still mean that half of people with license suspensions for failure to pay are not getting their licenses restored within a three-year period.
PEOPLE OF COLOR AND LOW INCOME PEOPLE ARE MOST AFFECTED BY SUSPENSIONS This analysis finds that people of color and low- income people are more likely to be affected by suspensions. We use several methods to examine this relationship. First, we analyze individual level information provided directly by the case study counties that maintain demographic data. Second, we use the zip codes associated with suspensions to see if areas with higher suspensions rates also have higher rates of people of color and people living in poverty. Finally, in one case study county, we use the addresses of people with license suspensions to even more precisely isolate the relationship
between suspension rates and race and income. By all measures, as outlined in detail below, we find there is a disproportionate impact of suspensions on low income people and people of color.
We focus on the two largest racial minorities in the state, the black and latinx population. both of which have been disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. To examine the effects on low income communities, we primarily use the measure of whether an individual’s income is below the federal poverty level.
In each of the four counties analyzed, the proportion of black people with suspensions was disproportionate to their representation in the county population.78 Across the four counties, black people are suspended at a rate 1.5 times their representation in the population.
‘‘
Figure 12: Percentage of 2016 Suspended Licenses Reinstated By End of 2018,
On average, 77.12% of driver’s license suspensions issued in 2016 remained
in effect at the end of 2018.
Figure XX: 298,000 Individuals Had Their Licenses Suspended From 2016-2018
Figure XX: Percent of Total Licenses Reinstated By County
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The data on the latinx population is more mixed. In Glades County, 27% of people suspended in the county are latinx, compared to 21% of latinx residents in the county. In Hillsborough County, only 9% of total people with suspensions were recorded as latinx, which is significantly less than their share in the population.
There are some serious limitations to the racial data provided by the four case study counties. The racial categories provided were determined by a law enforcement officer, not by a person self-identifying as part of a particular racial group. In addition, in some counties a significant portion of the sample was missing a racial designation— up to 50% in Hillsborough County. Given these limitations, it is especially important to also use geographic data and see suspension patterns emerge based on the racial populations in different areas.
A definitive pattern emerges when analyzing suspension rates by zip code: high suspension rates are concentrated in areas with low incomes and high rates of people of color.79 While there is not enough information to determine a causal
relationship, there is a positive association between the suspension rate per the adult population and these characteristics. The proportion of black residents, latinx residents, and residents below the poverty rate when combined account for 54% of the variation in suspension rates by zip code. The percentage of people below the poverty rate in each zip code has the strongest association with an increase in suspension rate out of all three factors
The relationship between race, income, and suspension rates can also be observed visually looking at a map of suspensions by zip code in each county. Figure 14 is a map of Seminole County comparing the concentration of suspension rates to the black population, the latinx population, and the population below the poverty level.
Another way to examine this association is to compare the characteristics of zip codes with high suspension rates and low suspension rates to see how they differ on key demographic characteristics. The differences in terms of race and income between zip codes with suspensions rates higher than the median and below the
Black people experience suspensions at 1.5 times their population rate.
1.3 X1.8 X
median are striking. The percentage of black residents in zip codes with higher suspension rates, for example, is 16% higher than zip codes with lower suspension rates. This pattern holds true for the percentage of latinx residents and the percentage of the adult population below the poverty rate, as can be seen below.
Hillsborough County data provided exact addresses for all traffic related suspensions, providing an increased level of precision to compare to the zip code analysis. Looking at suspensions per individual by census tract, the same pattern as seen in the zip code data emerges— high suspension rate areas are associated with tracts with higher rates of low- income people and people of color. Controlling for other factors that may influence suspension rates, such as gender, education level, and age gives us further confidence that failure to pay suspensions are having disproportionate effects on marginalized communities.
CONCLUSIONS: CASE STUDY COUNTIES While the four counties examined here vary widely in their suspension rates and outcomes, it is clear that driver’s license suspensions for nonpayment effect a significant number of individuals in each county. On average, 77.12% of driver’s license suspensions from 2016-2018 remained in effect at the end of 2018. This shows that suspensions can be long lasting and that paying all outstanding fees may be impossible for some, despite the consequences. Finally, by multiple metrics, this analysis finds a disturbing link between suspension rates and race and income, indicating that poor people and people of color may bear the brunt of Florida’s suspension practices across the state.
Figure 14: Seminole County Characteristics By Zip Code Data obtained from public records requests and on file with author.
Seminole CountySeminole County Suspension Rate
Percent Black Percent Below Poverty Level
Percent Latinx
Low Rate High Rate
Data obtained from public records requests and on file with author.
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Endnotes 1 Based on an analysis of data provided by Broward, Glades, Hillsborough, and Seminole Counties, on file with the Fines and Fees Justice Center. 2 “Palm Beach County’s Court Compliance Program,” National Association of Counties (2017) http://explorer.naco.org/cf_naco/ cffiles_web/awards/Award_program.cfm?SEARCHID=107231.
3 Margy Waller, “High Cost or High Opportunity Cost? Transportation and Family Success,” The Brookings Institution Center on Children & Families #35 (2005), https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/pb35.pdf.
4 Brookings consider jobs ‘accessible’ if they require no more than three hours of daily transit. Adie Tomer, et al., “Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America,” The Brookings Institution (2011), https://www.brookings.edu/wp- content/uploads/2016/06/0512_jobs_transit.pdf.
5 Martha M. Galvez, “Transportation Options Are Expanding, but Can They Reach the Urban Poor?” The Urban Institute (2016) https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/transportation-options-are-expanding-can-they-reach-urban-poor.
6 Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2017/30-percent-of-civilian-jobs- require-some-driving-in-2016.htm.
7 Alana Semuels, “No Driver’s License, No Job,” The Atlantic (June 15, 2016), https://www.theatlantic.com/business/ archive/2016/06/no-drivers-license-no-job/486653/.
8 Jon A. Carnegie et al., “Driver’s License Suspensions, Impacts and Fairness Study,” N.J. Dep’t of Transportation (2007), https:// www.nj.gov/transportation/refdata/research/reports/FHWA-NJ-2007-020-V1.pdf.
9 Alex Bender et al., Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, “Not Just a Ferguson Problem: How Traffic Courts Drive Inequality in California” (2015), https://lccr.com/wp-content/uploads/Not-Just-a-Ferguson-Problem-How-Traffic-Courts-Drive-Inequality- in-California-4.20.15.pdf, 17.
10 Ewan C. Watt, “Common Sense on Crime and Driver’s Licenses: Column,” USA Today (March 2, 2017), https://www.usatoday. com/story/opinion/2017/03/02/dont-suspend-drivers-licenses-for-no-good-reason-column/98481984/.
11 Joshua Aiken, Prison Policy Initiative, “Reinstating Common Sense: How Driver’s License Suspensions for Drug Offenses Unrelated to Driving Are Falling out of Favor,” (2016), https://www.prisonpolicy.org/driving/national.html.
12 L. William Seidman Research Institute, Arizona State University “The City of Phoenix Municipal Court’s Compliance Assistance Program, 2016: An Economic Assessment”, https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/content/uploads/2018/11/Phoenix-license- restoration-pilot-THE-CITY-OF-PHOENIX-MUNICIPAL-COURT%E2%80%99S-COMPLIANCE-ASSISTANCE-PROGRAM.pdf. 13 Rebecca Vallas, Melissa Boteach, and Rachel West, “Removing Barriers to Opportunity for Parents With Criminal Records and Their Children” (2015), The Center for American Progress, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/poverty/ reports/2015/12/10/126902/removing-barriers-to-opportunity-for-parents-with-criminal-records-and-their-children/.
14 Federal Reserve, 2019 Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households, https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/ pressreleases/other20190523b.htm 15 Center for American Progress, Talk Poverty Florida Report, https://talkpoverty.org/state-year-report/florida-2018-report/
16 Rosalind Adams, “In Florida, Failure to Pay Fees Can Result in Suspended License- And Then More Fees,” Miami Herald (August 10, 2015), https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article30665103.html.
17 Joshua Aiken, Prison Policy Initiative, “Reinstating Common Sense: How Driver’s License Suspensions for Drug Offenses Unrelated to Driving Are Falling out of Favor,” (2016), https://www.prisonpolicy.org/driving/national.html.
18 Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA), Options Exists to Modify Use of Driver License Suspension for Non-Driving-Related Reasons, www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/Reports/pdf/1407rpt.pdf.
19 American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, “Best Practices Guide to Reducing Suspended Drivers” (2013), https:// www.aamva.org/Suspended-and-Revoked-Drivers-Working-Group/.
20 “Resolution in Support of Limiting Driver’s License Suspensions to Violations That Involve Dangerous Driving,” American Legislative Exchange Council (2018), https://www.alec.org/model-policy/resolution-in-support-of-limiting-drivers-license- suspensions-to-violations-that-involve-dangerous-driving/
21 “Annual Uniform Traffic Citation Report,” Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, https://services.flhsmv. gov/SpecialtyPlates/UniformTrafficCitationReport (2017).
22 Sal Nuzzo and James Craven, “Changing Course: Driver’s License Suspension in Florida” (2018), https://www.jamesmadison. org/changing-the-course-drivers-license-suspension-in-florida/
24 Ibid.
27 “Florida Highway Patrol Hit and Run Statistics 2017,” ABC News (February 16, 2018), https://www.wjhg.com/content/news/ Florida-Highway-Patrol-releases-hit-and-run-statistics-for-2017-474327913.html
28 “Shelby County District Attorney Declines to Prosecute Driving on a Suspended License Where Underlying Suspension is for Unpaid Fines and Fees,” Fines and Fees Justice Center,
https://finesandfeesjusticecenter.org/articles/shelby-county-district-attorney-declines-to-prosecute-driving-on-a- suspended-license-where-underlying-suspension-is-for-unpaid-fines-and-fees/.
29 Robinson v. Purkey, Case No. 3:17-cv-1263 (2018), https://www.clearinghouse.net/detail.php?id=16234.
30 See, for example, “An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System” Vera Institute For Justice (2017), https://www.vera.org/publications/for-the-record-unjust-burden.
31 “Open Policing Project’s Nationwide Analysis of Traffic Stops and Searches.” Open Policing Project, https://openpolicing. stanford.edu/findings/.
32 News Release by Governor Ralph S. Northam, https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2019/march/ headline-839710-en.html 33 Rebekah Diller, “The Hidden Costs of Florida’s Criminal Justice Fees,” Brennan Center for Justice (2010), https://www. brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Justice/FloridaF&F.pdf, 1.
34 Ibid, 1.
35 Ibid., 14.
36 Florida Constitution Article V § 14(b) states that: “All funding for the offices of the clerks of the circuit and county courts performing court-related functions. . . shall be provided by adequate and appropriate filing fees for judicial proceedings and service charges and costs for performing court-related functions as required by general law.” 37 Rebekah Diller, “The Hidden Costs of Florida’s Criminal Justice Fees,” Brennan Center for Justice (2010), https://www. brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Justice/FloridaF&F.pdf, 9.
38 “Fiscal Analysis: SB 1076,” The Professional Staff of the Committee on Judiciary, http://www.flsenate.gov/Session/ Bill/2019/1076/Analyses/2019s01076.pre.ju.PDF.
39 “2019 Report To The Citizens,” Orange County Clerk, https://www.myorangeclerk.com/Misc-Pages/ News?pagesection=Message From the Clerk. (need correct cite)
40 Rebekah Diller, “The Hidden Costs of Florida’s Criminal Justice Fees,” Brennan Center for Justice (2010), https://www. brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/Justice/FloridaF&F.pdf, 9.
41 “The Ferguson Report: Department of Justice Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department,” Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_ department_report.pdf. 42 Rosalind Adams, “In Florida, Failure to Pay Fees Can Result in Suspended License- And Then More Fees,” Miami Herald (August 10, 2015), https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article30665103.html.
43 Larry Barszewski, “Fewer Tickets and More Crashes on Florida’s Roads.” Florida Sun Sentinel (Jul. 30, 2018), https://www.sun- sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-traffic-tickets-decline-20180725-story.html.
44 Associated Press, “Another Florida Highway Patrol Official Resigns in Wake of Ticket Quota Scandal,” Florida Sun Sentinel (Aug. 28, 2018), https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-fhp-ticket-quota-resign-20170829-story.html.
45 Larry Barszewski, “Fewer Tickets and More Crashes on Florida’s Roads.” Florida Sun Sentinel (Jul. 30, 2018), https://www.sun- sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-reg-traffic-tickets-decline-20180725-story.html.
46 “2017 Annual Assessments and Collections Report,” Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers, https://finesandfeesjusticecenter. org/content/uploads/2019/01/2017-Annual-Assessments-and-Collections-Consolidated-Summary-SMUSHED-2.pdf, 38. “2012 Annual Assessments and Collections Report,” Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers, http://archive.flclerks.com/Pub_
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49 Fla. Stat. § 322.245.
50 Hillsborough County: email from Doug Bakke, Chief Deputy, Hillsborough Clerk of the Circuit Court (May 7, 2019). Leon County: “A Prison Without Walls: Challenging Florida’s System of Criminal Debt.” Northeastern University School of Law Legal Skills in Context Program, Spring 2018, 90.
51 Fla. Stat. § 322.055. This was recently changed from one year to six months by House Bill 7125 (House Bill 7125: “Public Safety,” Florida Legislature (Enacted 2019), https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/07125).
52 Fla. Stat. § 322.29(2).
53 Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court, Driver’s License Suspension Information in Criminal, http://www.miami-dadeclerk.com/ courts_criminal_DL_Suspension_info.asp
54 Fla. Stat. § 28.246.
55 Ibid. 56 Fla. Stat. § 55.03.
57 “A Prison Without Walls: Challenging Florida’s System of Criminal Debt.” Northeastern University School of Law Legal Skills in Context Program, Spring 2018, 91. On file with Fines and Fees Justice Center. 58 Ibid. 92-93.
59 In Okeechobee County, “the Judge has discretion in determining when the license can be suspended, but it could be thirty days after the failure to pay.” Ibid., 94. 60 Ibid. 92.
61 E-mail received from FLHSMV staff dated June 17, 2019 on file and available upon request.
62 In addition, there is significant variation in the share of these suspensions that are due to failure to pay. In Seminole County, 93% of total driver’s license suspensions are for failure to pay, whereas in De Soto, just over 50% of suspensions are for failure to pay. A full county by county breakdown of suspensions is available in Appendix A.
63 “Options Exist to Modify Use of Driver License Suspension for Non-Driving-Related Reasons,” Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (2014), 9, http://www.oppaga.state.fl.us/MonitorDocs/Reports/pdf/1407rpt.pdf.
64 Annual Uniform Traffic Citation Report, https://services.flhsmv.gov/specialtyplates/uniformtrafficcitationreport .
65 Each year in Florida the FLHSMV publishes yearly citation data that provides the total number of traffic citations, as well as the total number of guilty verdicts, by the category of traffic violation. The available data on citations for a suspended license, provided by the FLHSMV, does not distinguish between: 1) the reason for suspension and 2) whether the driver’s license was suspended or revoked. However, we know based on other FLHSMV data provided that 68 percent of suspensions and revocations in 2017 were driver’s license suspensions due to nonpayment.
66 Fla. Stat. § 322.34; Fla. Stat. § 775.083.
67 Fla. Stat. § 322.34; Fla. Stat. § 775.082; Fla. Stat. § 775.083, Fla. Stat. § 322.264. 68 House Bill 7125, Florida Legislature (Enacted 2019), https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2019/07125.
69 “Statewide Collection Initiative Update,” Clerks of Court Operations Corporation (2015), https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.flclerks. com/resource/resmgr/Statewide_Collection_Initiat.pdf.
70 Cindy Swirko, The Gainesville Sun, “Showing a path for getting driver’s license restored” (June 13, 2019), https://www. gainesville.com/news/20190613/showing-path-for-getting-drivers-license-restored 71 Ibid. 72 “Drive Legal Program: FAQ,” Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, https://www.jud11.flcourts.org/Drive-Legal-Program 73 While the county level data provided by the FLHSMV provides insights into overall statewide suspensions for failure to pay, it does not help to determine 1) how long driver’s license suspensions tend to remain in effect, and 2) whether people of color and low-income people are more likely to be affected by suspensions. The FLHSMV data also does not reveal the number of individuals affected by these suspension policies, only the total number of suspensions. Since multiple suspensions can be issued per individual, it is difficult to obtain an estimate of the number of people impacted. Unfortunately, despite multiple communications with the FLHSMV, more detailed statewide information could not be obtained for this analysis.
74 Calculations based on data provided by FLHSMV.
75 These four counties represent 13.2% of the total state population. If 298,000 was 13.2 percent of the states total suspensions, statewide suspensions would equal 2.25 million.
76 Calculations based on data provided by FLHSMV.
77 As stated in the statutory review section, counties vary widely in terms of the time they allow people to be delinquent on payments, whether the county uses discretion to initiate a suspension or not, and whether licenses can be reinstated after partial payment of overdue fees if a judge assesses it makes sense to do so. 78 Four counties provided some racial data linked to suspension information that could be used to create estimates of the number of suspensions per individual per racial group.
79 Four counties provided information on the zip codes associated with suspension cases: Duval, Glades, Hillsborough, and Seminole. I matched these codes with demographic census data to examine the relationship between suspension rates and people of color and low income people.
30 DRIVING ON EMPTY
CIRCUIT COUNTY TOTAL LICENSED
FOR DWLS IN 2017
FIRST ESCAMBIA 234,430 20352 18555 7.91% 91.17% 9 14560 78.47% 6257
OKALOOSA 163,392 5888 5362 3.28% 91.07% 47 3641 67.90% 2002
SANTA ROSA 136,239 9630 8926 6.55% 92.69% 16 6224 69.73% 2243
WALTON 53,314 1033 653 1.22% 63.21% 67 394 60.34% 510
SECOND FRANKLIN 8,040 371 335 4.17% 90.30% 34 277 82.69% 166
GADSDEN 31,154 481 388 1.25% 80.67% 66 296 76.29% 570
JEFFERSON 10,299 562 523 5.08% 93.06% 27 309 59.08% 132
LEON 198,368 17907 16959 8.55% 94.71% 7 10509 61.97% 3395
LIBERTY 4,835 171 165 3.41% 96.49% 43 102 61.82% 64
WAKULLA 23,439 1514 1214 5.18% 80.18% 26 775 63.84% 269
THIRD COLUMBIA 49,637 1914 1239 2.50% 64.73% 58 803 64.81% 843
DIXIE 11,086 513 400 3.61% 77.97% 42 315 78.75% 140
HAMILTON 9,136 599 500 5.47% 83.47% 23 317 63.40% 368
LAFAYETTE 4,666 148 119 2.55% 80.41% 57 80 67.23% 37
MADISON 12,324 908 869 7.05% 95.70% 11 504 58.00% 511
SUWANNEE 30,598 935 726 2.37% 77.65% 59 523 72.04% 408
TAYLOR 15,217 728 672 4.42% 92.31% 31 498 74.11% 188
FOURTH CLAY 167,754 10763 10305 6.14% 95.74% 18 6380 61.91% 1758
DUVAL 705,037 83202 65772 9.33% 79.05% 6 38351 58.31% 15752
NASSAU 69,011 2246 1907 2.76% 84.91% 54 1350 70.79% 1008
FIFTH CITRUS 122,342 4338 3947 3.23% 90.99% 48 3011 76.29% 1048
HERNANDO 147,386 9804 8705 5.91% 88.79% 19 5954 68.40% 2042
LAKE 276,107 16273 14413 5.22% 88.57% 25 8992 62.39% 3497
MARION 287,920 9791 8147 2.83% 83.21% 53 6570 80.64% 2691
SUMTER 97,312 3409 3273 3.36% 96.01% 45 2137 65.29% 1353
SIXTH PASCO 399,342 18458 15653 3.92% 84.80% 37 11048 70.58% 3933
PINELLAS 760,906 49124 36747 4.83% 74.80% 30 23929 65.12% 12051
SEVENTH FLAGLER 93,840 2467 2028 2.16% 82.21% 61 1181 58.23% 973
PUTNAM 51,490 1633 1519 2.95% 93.02% 52 874 57.54% 1172
ST. JOHNS 190,273 6449 5659 2.97% 87.75% 51 3743 66.14% 2058
VOLUSIA 426,112 16724 14324 3.36% 85.65% 46 9616 67.13% 7451
EIGHTH ALACHUA 191,989 10,530 9514 4.96% 90.35% 28 5214 54.80% 2366
BAKER 19,452 1295 1200 6.17% 92.66% 17 932 77.67% 330
BRADFORD 19,250 1972 1827 9.49% 92.65% 5 1409 77.12% 616
GILCHRIST 12,119 377 321 2.65% 85.15% 55 282 87.85% 138
LEVY 32,292 1108 1020 3.16% 92.06% 49 619 60.69% 499
UNION 8,411 274 215 2.56% 78.47% 56 176 81.86% 88
NINTH ORANGE 997,848 159316 149589 14.99% 93.89% 1 92716 61.98% 14699
OSCEOLA 274,531 19537 18227 6.64% 93.29% 13 10199 55.96% 3482
TENTH HARDEE 16,049 1150 1111 6.92% 96.61% 12 725 65.26% 289
HIGHLANDS 75,323 1836 1571 2.09% 85.57% 62 1251 79.63% 628
POLK 488,491 43141 38906 7.96% 90.18% 8 22301 57.32% 6610
ELEVENTH MIAMI-DADE 2,030,917 307731 250063 12.31% 81.26% 3 135283 54.10% 35842
Appendix A: DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSIONS IN 2017
CIRCUIT COUNTY TOTAL LICENSED
FOR DWLS IN 2017
FIRST ESCAMBIA 234,430 20352 18555 7.91% 91.17% 9 14560 78.47% 6257
OKALOOSA 163,392 5888 5362 3.28% 91.07% 47 3641 67.90% 2002
SANTA ROSA 136,239 9630 8926 6.55% 92.69% 16 6224 69.73% 2243
WALTON 53,314 1033 653 1.22% 63.21% 67 394 60.34% 510
SECOND FRANKLIN 8,040 371 335 4.17% 90.30% 34 277 82.69% 166
GADSDEN 31,154 481 388 1.25% 80.67% 66 296 76.29% 570
JEFFERSON 10,299 562 523 5.08% 93.06% 27 309 59.08% 132
LEON 198,368 17907 16959 8.55% 94.71% 7 10509 61.97% 3395
LIBERTY 4,835 171 165 3.41% 96.49% 43 102 61.82% 64
WAKULLA 23,439 1514 1214 5.18% 80.18% 26 775 63.84% 269
THIRD COLUMBIA 49,637 1914 1239 2.50% 64.73% 58 803 64.81% 843
DIXIE 11,086 513 400 3.61% 77.97% 42 315 78.75% 140
HAMILTON 9,136 599 500 5.47% 83.47% 23 317 63.40% 368
LAFAYETTE 4,666 148 119 2.55% 80.41% 57 80 67.23% 37
MADISON 12,324 908 869 7.05% 95.70% 11 504 58.00% 511
SUWANNEE 30,598 935 726 2.37% 77.65% 59 523 72.04% 408
TAYLOR 15,217 728 672 4.42% 92.31% 31 498 74.11% 188
FOURTH CLAY 167,754 10763 10305 6.14% 95.74% 18 6380 61.91% 1758
DUVAL 705,037 83202 65772 9.33% 79.05% 6 38351 58.31% 15752
NASSAU 69,011 2246 1907 2.76% 84.91% 54 1350 70.79% 1008
FIFTH CITRUS 122,342 4338 3947 3.23% 90.99% 48 3011 76.29% 1048
HERNANDO 147,386 9804 8705 5.91% 88.79% 19 5954 68.40% 2042
LAKE 276,107 16273 14413 5.22% 88.57% 25 8992 62.39% 3497
MARION 287,920 9791 8147 2.83% 83.21% 53 6570 80.64% 2691
SUMTER 97,312 3409 3273 3.36% 96.01% 45 2137 65.29% 1353
SIXTH PASCO 399,342 18458 15653 3.92% 84.80% 37 11048 70.58% 3933
PINELLAS 760,906 49124 36747 4.83% 74.80% 30 23929 65.12% 12051
SEVENTH FLAGLER 93,840 2467 2028 2.16% 82.21% 61 1181 58.23% 973
PUTNAM 51,490 1633 1519 2.95% 93.02% 52 874 57.54% 1172
ST. JOHNS 190,273 6449 5659 2.97% 87.75% 51 3743 66.14% 2058
VOLUSIA 426,112 16724 14324 3.36% 85.65% 46 9616 67.13% 7451
EIGHTH ALACHUA 191,989 10,530 9514 4.96% 90.35% 28 5214 54.80% 2366
BAKER 19,452 1295 1200 6.17% 92.66% 17 932 77.67% 330
BRADFORD 19,250 1972 1827 9.49% 92.65% 5 1409 77.12% 616
GILCHRIST 12,119 377 321 2.65% 85.15% 55 282 87.85% 138
LEVY 32,292 1108 1020 3.16% 92.06% 49 619 60.69% 499
UNION 8,411 274 215 2.56% 78.47% 56 176 81.86% 88
NINTH ORANGE 997,848 159316 149589 14.99% 93.89% 1 92716 61.98% 14699
OSCEOLA 274,531 19537 18227 6.64% 93.29% 13 10199 55.96% 3482
TENTH HARDEE 16,049 1150 1111 6.92% 96.61% 12 725 65.26% 289
HIGHLANDS 75,323 1836 1571 2.09% 85.57% 62 1251 79.63% 628
POLK 488,491 43141 38906 7.96% 90.18% 8 22301 57.32% 6610
ELEVENTH MIAMI-DADE 2,030,917 307731 250063 12.31% 81.26% 3 135283 54.10% 35842
APPENDIX A: DRIVER’S LICENSE SUSPENSIONS IN 2017
CONT.
FOR DWLS IN 2017
TWELFTH DE SOTO 20,049 565 391 1.95% 69.20% 63 285 72.89% 280
MANATEE 276,970 13690 10148 3.66% 74.13% 41 6244 61.53% 2450
SARASOTA 335,012 16373 13970 4.17% 85.32% 33 9419 67.42% 3566
THIRTEENTH HILLSBOROUGH 1,032,709 91306 68030 6.59% 74.51% 15 42435 62.38% 16940
FOURTEENTH BAY 147,511 8745 7230 4.90% 82.68% 29 5397 74.65% 2596
CALHOUN 9,166 490 374 4.08% 76.33% 36 288 77.01% 132
GULF 11,750 221 210 1.79% 95.02% 65 165 78.57% 138
HOLMES 13,943 282 262 1.88% 92.91% 64 239 91.22% 211
JACKSON 33,589 1682 1231 3.66% 73.19% 40 725 58.90% 548
WASHINGTON 17,461 1091 992 5.68% 90.93% 20 720 72.58% 244
FIFTEENTH PALM BEACH 1,089,074 98647 77404 7.11% 78.47% 10 42009 54.27% 15603
SIXTEENTH MONROE 74,870 4591 4128 5.51% 89.92% 21 2510 60.80%

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